Kita chose three wonderful recipes from this cook book: chicken and sausage jambalaya, crawfish in saffron cream, and bananas foster pie. I was torn between the pie and the jambalaya, but the jambalaya won in the end because I figured that it would be a great meal to make on a Sunday so that it would give us leftovers during the week. Because of work and school, it's not always easy for me to get a good meal on the table and this meal gave us plenty of leftovers! I do still want to make the pie in the future because it sounds wonderful!

This jambalaya is a basic jambalaya that you can use as a base to create your own version. Because this was my first time making jambalaya (that wasn't from a box), I decided to stick to the recipe. The only revisions I would make in the future would be 1) make sure to use white long grain rice -- I used brown basmati and it took over an hour to cook, 2) add more parsley, 3) complete the trinity with celery (usually contains onion, bell pepper, and celery in Louisiana cuisine), and 4) make sure to use andouille sausage instead of kielbasa because it lacked some spice with the kielbasa. You can certainly add more Cajun or Creole spices if you'd like too, and you can add shrimp to the top of the rice about 5-10 minutes before the rice finishes cooking.

If you'd like a great one pot recipe that serves several people or makes leftovers, give this recipe a try!

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Your jambalaya looks amazing! For first time out of the gate - you did great! I love making big meals like jambalaya or gumbo on a Sunday for the same busy work week schedule. I always feel like the leftovers taste better somehow!

You're definitely right about the celery. I did use the kielbasa because I have a seven year-old in the house and didn't want to pile to much heat on her plate. Otherwise, I'd have definitely gone with the andouille.